Filmmaker Elene Naveriani takes Seoul Women’s Fest award

Georgian film director Elene Naveriani has claimed honours of the jury of the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival for her debut feature I Am Truly a Drop of Sun on Earth.

The young creative’s work received the Special Jury Prize, one of three international feature awards handed out at the South Korean festival that concluded on Thursday.

Screened within the International Feature Competition, Naveriani’s film brought to the Korean audiences her story of two protagonists marginalised in the conservative setting of Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.

In its script April, a sex worker, meets Dije, an immigrant from Nigeria, with the two finding themselves at the bottom of the social ladder.

It is in this space of marginalization or even exclusion that [...] the story of April and Dije, who live in the shadow of a violence always announced and never manifested, [takes shape]”, said a review by filmexplorer.ch website.

Premiering at the International Film Festival Rotterdam last year, the feature was praised by Cineuropa film portal for the young director’s "clarity of mind and formal audacity”.

Naveriani's debut feature centres around two protagonists in Georgia's capital Tbilisi. Photo: SIWFF.

The huge effort of the director to win the trust of her actors (who play themselves) runs through the entire film as an integral part of the filmmaking process,” said the Cineuropa review of the film.

Born in Tbilisi, Naveriani graduated from the State Academy of Art in 2007 and also holds Master’s degree in critical curatorial cybermedia.

She later moved to Switzerland and graduated from the Geneva High School of Art and Design in 2014. Her debut feature is produced by Geneva-based Alva Film.

The filmmaker’s previous works include short films Father, Bless Us (2013) and Gospel of Anasyrma (2014).